Schaffer Shocker: New Revelations in Bob Schaffer/Jack Abramoff Scandal Story

And we thought investigative journalism was dead.

Intrepid Denver Post reporter Mike Riley has apparently been a busy bee. He snagged this picture of Schaffer parasailingfact-finding in Saipan. He's managed to blow open Bob Schaffer's ties to Jack Abramoff, and Schaffer has essentially no defense other than to claim what will very likely be disproven, and may have been already:

Opponents "are trying to leave the impression that Bob went gallivanting off to the Mariana Islands with Jack Abramoff, who Bob has never met, never talked to and wasn't even aware was around back then," [Schaffer Campaign Manager] Wadhams said.

But just below that in the article:

At the time, Schaffer's staff also flagged the role of Abramoff's firm in the Marianas trip. In an August 1999 memo, Schaffer was told that travel arrangements to the Mariana Islands had been made by Preston-Gates. Handwritten notes on the agenda point out that a lunch meeting was with several current or former clients of the firm, including the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Western Pacific Economic Council.

How long do you suppose it is before Riley or another intrepid reporter or blogger turns up evidence to refute Wadhams' claims?

But let's keep our eyes on the meaning of this story. As commenter JohnSmith noted on the story:

Schaffer was there, the abuses were well-documented before he went and in the ten years since, and he still thinks it's a "model" system. Either he's still on the take from sweatshop owners in Saipan or he's completely in denial.

This is not a "Big Labor" dispute, this is an ongoing investigation by the federal government under both the Clinton and Bush administrations spanning over ten years, with mountains of documentary evidence. Ignorance is no excuse, so Schaffer's position must either be genuine or paid for. Either way, this story deserves further scrutiny.

Schaffer Schuffle on Immigration

Mike Riley has an interesting piece today's Denver Post further teasing out the phony triangulation on immigration that Schaffer is trying to pull, likely just so he can hang on to what little business support he has.

A couple of weeks ago, Schaffer was unwilling to talk about immigration because he was not ready to stake out a position. Now he's billing himself as to the left of Mark Udall and John McCain on immigration. That may help him with the business community, but it's certainly not going to help him with the base.

The model he says he wants to follow is that of the Northern Mariana Islands. You'll remember that's the place where convicted felon Jack Abramoff, et. al., lobbied to quash an investigation in to the horrible conditions there, to prevent the islands from gaining a Congressional delegate, and to exempt the islands from federal minimum wage laws and workplace safety standards. Says Congressman George Miller:

Let’s remember what they paid for: a protection racket that sheltered a sweatshop industry that systematically exploited tens of thousands of impoverished foreign workers -- mostly Asian women -- who were little better than indentured servants; a sweatshop industry that earned some of the heaviest fines in U.S. history for violating labor laws; an industry repeatedly cited by the Departments of Justice, Interior and other federal agencies. They were defending a corrupt immigration system that regularly approved visas for non-existent jobs, resulting in hundreds of women being forced into the sex trade, including prostitution. [emphasis supplied]

Bob Schaffer in the Post article above:

"The concept of prequalifying foreign workers in their home country under private-sector management is a system that works very well in one place in America," he said of the islands' program. "I think members of Congress ought to be looking at that model and be considering it as a possible basis for a nationwide program."

Some of the reported consequences of the program that Bob Schaffer thinks works so well are sweatshops, virtual slavery, human trafficking, child labor, prostitution, and forced abortion. And now he wants to bring that kind of program here.